Tea Party in Jewett spotlights Odgen and Bius in State Senator race

Ben Bius, Marva Beck and Steve Ogden get the opportunity to share their views at the Tea Party in Jewett. Sherry’s Shots With the March 2, 2010 Primary Elections on the minds of many, politician’s all over the county and state are doing whatever they perceive needs to be done to achieve their goal of being elected or re-elected. One affair that was held to spotlight the state election was a Political Forum presented by the Leon County Tea Party in association with The Madison and Houston County Tea Parties. The Forum was at the Jewett Civic Center on February 17.

The Republican candidates for Governor were invited but sent representatives in their places. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s rep failed to make an appearance due to illness. The two gubernatorial representatives who came presented their bosses viewpoint and fielded questions from the audience. However, it is safe to say there was little enthusiasm since attendees could not address the candidates first hand.

Republican Marva Beck is challenging incumbent democrat Jim Dunnam for State Representative District 57. Beck was present Dunnam was not. The two will meet in the general election in November. The 57th District includes Leon, Madison, Robertson, Falls and a portion of McLennan Counties, with the only urban area in the District being Waco. Beck’s stance is that she is a retired rancher who understands the rural areas and is a conservative who is tough enough to fight for her convictions.

When Senator Ogden took the podium he addressed an issue which occurred last week in response to Ben Bius’ comments about Ogden’s voting record. He said “I want to apologize for a comment that was quoted in the Austin American Statesman. One could take that comment and think that I believe tea parties are silly and that isn’t what I meant.”

Ogden was quoted in the Statesman as saying, “I’ve always considered myself a conservative; and a lot of this is being driven by people who think the road to the Texas Senate is through the tea party movement, which is very conservative and made up of people who voted for Ron Paul and Ross Perot. When the election is over, I think that strategy is going to look pretty silly.”

Steve Ogden is 59 years old and has been in the Texas Senate since 1997, previous to that he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1990. Since 2004 he has been the Finance Committee chairman, one of the most powerful positions in Austin.

In his allotted five minutes, Ogden stressed that the Federal budget deficit is a “clear and present danger” and if not brought under control our children and grand- children will not have the quality of life with which we are blessed.

Challenger Ben Bius is 54, lives in Huntsville and has run twice for a seat in the Texas House and has lost both times. Bius says Ogden encouraged him to run for the senate seat after Ogden announced that he would retire. Then after Bius had committed to run, Ogden filed for re-election. Bius claims Ogden misled him. Ogden said he decided to run after Dan Gattis, Republican from Georgetown dropped out. Ogden said from the Dias, “If he (Bius) was going to win I wanted him to work for it.”

Bius’ presented his primary concern as the need to end generational welfare and stated and he would require a welfare recipient be tested for drugs; be a citizen of the U.S. and have basic reading, writing and math skills before receiving funds.

The two candidates fielded questions from the audience which covered the fairness of property taxes; the illegal alien problems and term limits.

The tone of the evening was cordial but Ogden, being the only incumbent present, appeared to be on the defense quite often.